House County Government Panel to Weigh Sheriff Staffing, Medical Examiner Expansion

The Texas House Permanent Standing Subcommittee on County and Regional Government will gavel in at 9 a.m. Aug. 25 to take invited and public testimony on two interim charges: whether Texas counties can recruit, train and keep law enforcement officers, and whether more counties should be required to run a medical examiner’s office.

Texans who cannot travel to the Capitol may file electronic comments on both topics through the House comment portal until the hearing adjourns, and public testimony may be limited at the chair’s discretion, according to the hearing notice.

Rep. David Spiller, R–Jacksboro, chairs the five-member panel — three Republicans and two Democrats — one of two permanent standing subcommittees under the House Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs. Both charges revisit unfinished business: the Legislature has spent three sessions pouring state money into rural sheriff’s offices, and a bill to widen the medical examiner mandate died on the House calendar last year after passing through this very subcommittee.

On Strengthening County Law Enforcement, members are asked to study recruiting, training and retention, and to examine the disparities between counties in how law enforcement agencies are funded, contracted with and staffed. The state’s main tool is the rural law enforcement grant program created by Senate Bill 22 in 2023 and administered by the comptroller, which supplements salaries for sheriffs, constables and prosecutors in counties under 300,000 people — 92.9 percent of Texas counties. Sheriff’s office grants run from $250,000 to $500,000 depending on county population, and the comptroller reported $387.4 million awarded to 1,553 recipients as of April 2026. The 2026-27 budget, Senate Bill 1, added $100,000 to the base grant for counties of 7,501 to 9,999 residents. A newer program layers on top: the Sheriff Immigration Law Enforcement Grant Program, effective Jan. 1, 2026, reimburses sheriffs who hold agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and had paid out $3.9 million to 47 offices as of June 1. Sheriff’s budgets also carry county jails, where The Texas Dispatch reported this month that more than twenty Texans told the state jail commission how people died in county custody.

The second charge, Medical Examiner Expansion, goes at a system unique to Texas. Article 49.25 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires a medical examiner’s office only in counties above 2.5 million people, leaving every other commissioners court free to establish one or to leave death inquests with elected justices of the peace, who need no medical training. KXAN’s “A Hanging on Backbone Creek” investigation found that just 14 of the state’s 254 counties have a medical examiner. A separate section of the same statute authorizes two or more counties to create a joint medical examiners district — the intercounty option the charge asks members to evaluate.

That framework nearly changed last year. Senate Bill 1370 by Sen. Tan Parker, R–Flower Mound — who raised the threshold himself as a House member in 2019 — would have lowered the trigger to one million residents and stripped the population limits on ME districts. The Senate passed it April 10, 2025. It was referred to this subcommittee a week later, heard May 12, left pending, then recalled and reported out of the full Intergovernmental Affairs Committee 10-0. Placed on the House General State Calendar on May 26, 2025, it never got a floor vote. Any successor bill will land amid a rewrite: House Bill 1610, a nonsubstantive revision of the Code of Criminal Procedure, repeals Chapter 49 effective April 1, 2027.

Parker himself will be a few doors away that morning — he chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, which meets at the same hour. Because this is an interim hearing, the subcommittee will take no votes. Its findings feed the Intergovernmental Affairs interim report and the county-government bills lawmakers file for the 90th Legislature, which convenes in January 2027.

Meeting at a glance

Committee members

• Rep. David Spiller, R–Jacksboro (HD-68) — Chair
• Rep. Sheryl Cole, D–Austin (HD-46) — Vice Chair
• Rep. David Lowe, R–North Richland Hills (HD-91)
• Rep. Carl H. Tepper, R–Lubbock (HD-84)
• Rep. Erin Zwiener, D–Driftwood (HD-45)